Ian Newbould, a former college provost and president, will become the interim president of St. Mary’s College of Maryland starting in August following the departure of Joseph Urgo.

“I am honored to have been selected as interim president of St. Mary’s College and look forward to joining this extraordinary institution,” Newbould said in a statement released Monday morning. He will serve as interim president for at least the next academic year while the college’s board of trustees searches for the next president.

Newbould most recently served as interim provost at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Va. He has spent more than three decades in higher education, including serving as president of Richmond, The American International University in London; North Carolina Wesleyan College in Rocky Mount, N.C.; and Mount Allison University in New Brunswick, Canada.

Urgo, who was hired three years ago as president of St. Mary’s College, announced in May that he would not ask the college’s board of trustees to renew his contract, which ends at the end of June.

Chip Jackson, the college’s vice president for business and finance, will function as acting president until Newbould arrives Aug. 1.

Urgo sought to diversify the campus and make it more accessible.

However, in the beginning of May the college announced it had a dramatic shortfall in the number of new freshmen enrolling for next academic year. The college expected to enroll 470 freshmen, but by May 1 only about 320 committed to attend. Since then some additional students have enrolled, however the freshman class remains about 100 students shy of the enrollment goal.

The college is planning $3.5 million in budget cuts — some permanent and some temporary — to make up for the shortfall in tuition now expected next year.

In addition to Urgo, Pat Goldsmith, the vice president of admissions and financial aid, and Keisha Reynolds, assistant vice president of external relations, have departed St. Mary’s College in the last month.

Newbould, the new interim president, is a graduate of the University of Western Ontario. He received his master’s degree from the University of Guelph in Canada and a doctorate in history from the University of Manchester in England.

“We are extremely pleased to have a distinguished academic leader and scholar on board to provide leadership during such an important period in our college’s history,” Gail Harmon, trustee chair, said in a statement. “Dr. Newbould has a clear appreciation of and commitment to St. Mary’s special mission as a public liberal arts college; he is proud to serve the designated honors college of the state of Maryland.”